The Combined assignment: you need to know this

Farmers can submit the Combined Statement from 1 March to 15 May at the latest. However, some changes have been made compared to other years. Boerenbusiness List the most important changes.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) has made a total of dozens of changes to the Combined Statement for 2018. Boerenbusiness has listed the 7 most important points for attention.

1. Ecological Focus Areas
The plots that are designated as an Ecological Focus Area (EA) may no longer be sprayed with plant protection products. When using a nitrogen-fixing crop (as the main crop), a mixture with another crop is also permitted. However, the nitrogen binders must form more than half of the mixture.

2. Catch crops
A catch crop (like EA) no longer needs to be on the land for at least 10 weeks. This has been reduced to at least 8 weeks† In category 3 (undersowing in the main crop) the requirement of 10 weeks has lapsed and a term no longer applies. After a shorter period, the field may be worked again. Catch crops may be sown up to and including 15 October, previously this was up to and including 30 September.

3. Authorize the trade association
In the current Combined Statement, the sector organization can to be authorized to access the area data. If the farmer does not do this, he must later manually provide the data to the trade association.

4. Payment entitlements reduced
Payment entitlements are increased by 4% to 4,5% reduced† This is done by transferring the budget from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of €30 million from Pillar 1 (direct payments) to Pillar 2 (Rural development). This means that the basic and greening payment and the extra payment are lower.

5. National Reserve
Only in 2018 can you apply for payment entitlements from the National Reserve (NR). This applies, for example, to starters and plots where no payment entitlements were allocated between 2015 and 2017. This is because they are not classified as eligible land.

6. Owned Plots
It must be stated in the Combined Statement that the farmer himself is the user of the specified parcels. If the parcel is not owned, the farmer must declare that he has permission to use the parcels for agriculture. In addition, the land use in 'my plots' must be updated.

7. Sanctions
The maximum sanction for non-compliance with the greening conditions goes from 120% to 125%. From now on, preliminary checks are also carried out (pillar 2). From 2018, the storage capacity of animal manure must also be reported in the Agricultural Census.

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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